Good morning, afternoon, evening to all (depending on when you read this). We hope you and yours are well and staying safe. We’re coming to you from the country in Toano after enjoying a delightful dinner with some parishioners and their family. We practiced safe distancing and wore masks when we weren’t chomping down.
We start with a reminder. 

In our Saturday Evening Mass tomorrow, at 5:30 pm, we will fully initiate those who were not able to Baptized, Confirmed, and receive First Communion in the Easter Vigil. We will also welcome their family members into full communion, confirm them, and baptize their younger children.  I remind you again this will be a longer, more involved Mass than is usual on Saturday evening as there are many adults, teens and older children to be initiated, celebrated and welcomed!

For those with time constraints or who usually “do dinner” immediately afterward, you may want to choose another time for an in-person Mass (either at 11:00 or at 2:30 in Spanish) or else tune in Sunday morning at 8:30 am for our parish’s live-stream Mass. 

First communion 
On Saturday morning July 25, we will welcome to the Lord’s Altar-Table some of our children who are prepared to receive our Eucharistic Lord. This Mass will be at 9:30 am and will be live-streamed (on our parish website) for their extended families who will not be able to be present because of Covid.  There will be no live-streamed Mass at 9:00 am that morning.  A second First Communion Mass is scheduled for August 11 at 6:00 pm. This will be live-streamed, too.    

Confirmation for our teens
We will confirm those who were slated to be confirmed by the Bishop in mid-March on Tuesday Evening August 4 and Wednesday evening 5th at 7:00 pm. These Masses will be live-streamed for families and friends in other states and places.  

Payroll Protection Program and St Bede
Recently there has been some press about the Catholic Church receiving lots of money from the government forgivable loan/grant program and, in particular, St Bede receiving dollars between $2-$5 million through the Cares Act (Coronavius Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act). Yes, we did apply as a small business to support payroll, mortgage interest and facilities support expenses in these uncertain times (in the range of $150,000-$350,000 range).

With this help, we were able to fulfill our mission to you and the larger Williamsburg community (providing worship, religious formation and sacramental preparation, support of those experiencing need spiritually, emotionally, physically and solicit funds, volunteers, and foods for the House of Mercy, etc.) We are very appreciative to have received these monies.

Miscellanea
As many of you know, Fr John Baab was feeling out of sorts on Monday a week ago and went to get tested for Covid. He’s feeling fine but is still waiting for the results from the test. He’s self-quarantined. He appreciates your concern and prayers.  

Tonight will be our last Friday night chat. On Friday night. We plan to switch the day of our broadcast to Tuesday nights - which is a much better night for all of our schedules. So, “we’ll see you again” this Tuesday. If you don’t have a Facebook account and have a question you want to ask us, send it to  msgrjlehman@bede.va  or send it to our homepage. Brittney will be sure to get it to us. 

Lastly, we miss seeing you who are understandably staying in place. And to all who have ventured out, thank you for sacrificially keeping the rest of us well. The safeguards and cautions may be “cramping our style”, and you may be completely against them for whatever reason but they are keeping us well and virus free. We thank you.  

Well, that’s the news from St Bede (remotely) where God is found by those who seek him and the sun shines brightly every day...that is, if you and we behave! 


To register for this weekend's Mass, click here.


   If you have questions, please email me directly:  msgrjlehman@bedeva.org.

June 13, 2020 update

June 20, 2020 update

July 11, 2020 update